Couple’s Abortion Vote Site Declared a Pro-Life Publicity Stunt

The web site a Minnesota couple created seeking a public vote on whether or not they should have an abortion, taking the life of their 17-week unborn child, has been declared a pro-life stunt by both sides of the abortion debate.

The web site called BirthorNot.com has received worldwide attention with both pro-life and pro-abortion people flabbergasted that someone would leave a life and death decision up to the general public.

Although some readers of their web are taking the couple’s claims at face value and voting in droves to ensure they don’t have an abortion, pro-life nurse and blogger Jill Stanek is one of the skeptics.

“Although the posts appeared plausible when I perused them, the concept had “scam” written all over it. So I didn’t buy in. My thought was the couple was trying to punk pro-lifers,” she writes in a NewsBusters post about the web site. “The reaction has been most interesting. Pro-choicers think this is a scam against them. Now, while pro-lifers are becoming incensed and begging the couple not to abort, pro-choicers are becoming incensed and wanting the couple to be shot.”

Stanek says the detailed descriptions of the development of the unborn child and the couple’s posting of ultrasound pictures lead her to believe the couple is pro-life and using the web site and the attention to show the absurdity of abortion.

“I’ve come to agree this is a pro-life stunt. A pro-choicer, unless a real sicko, would not go into this sort of detail about the 16-week development of the baby she may abort,” Stanek says.

Abortion advocates have also done research into the couple and they say they believe it’s a pro-life stunt as well.

Blogger Amanda Marcotte, who is pro-abortion, noted the Arnolds purchased the domain name for the web site in May and, as pro-lifer Stanek says, “well before Alisha got pregnant, which I estimate was August 4, according to my handy dandy pregnancy wheel.”

The Arnolds told the web site Gawker they bought the domain during their second pregnancy, which ended in miscarriage and maintain the web site is legitimate because they planned to put that pregnancy up for a vote but waiting until they became pregnant again.

“The couple said they purchased their domain before miscarrying their second baby but actually bought it the month afterward – when not at all pregnant. In other words, they planned this,” Stanek concludes. “This corroborates that this is a publicity stunt of some sort. I wouldn’t get too emotionally involved. But I will be watching with interest to see how they play this out.”

Meanwhile, Jeff Fecke, a blogger who backs abortion, unearthed more information leading observers to believe the vote is a hoax.

He points to another blogger, Tracy Clark-Flory, who posted how Pete Arnold, the father, has been active in Internet web discussion sites and has repeatedly posted comments showing him to be a strong conservative politically.

“Pete once posted his super-pro-G.W. thoughts on CNN, and Alisha is a fan of Glenn Beck on Facebook,” Clark-Flory notes.

Fecke notes that Arnold also used to be a researcher, contributor, and part time producer for the Race to the Right radio show in St Cloud, a conservative talk program and “he blogged at Always Right, Usually Correct, which had a hard anti-choice bent.”

Fecke also believes Arnold posted on the web site dKosopedia under the username he frequently employs, Zeeboid, with the message: “The term “pro-choice” is used by men and women who support a woman’s right to kill an unborn child. The term means that a woman has the right to determine whether or not she will be pregnant by killing a baby that has already been conceived. Also Referred to as Pro Abortion.”

“He and his wife have put together a web stunt,” Fecke concludes.

The abortion poll has caught the attention of the public and more than 87,000 people have now voted, with 80.51 percent saying they should keep their baby and 19.49 percent recommending an abortion.